The Parole Project

This is the webpage for the National Study of Community Views on Parole (‘The Parole Project’). This project is being undertaken by Dr Robin Fitzgerald and Dr Adrian Cherney (University of Queensland), Associate Professor Lorana Bartels (University of Canberra), and Emeritus Professor Arie Freiberg (Monash University). This research is funded by a Discovery Project from the Australian Research Council.

The purpose of this research is to gather information about people’s general views about crime, offender rehabilitation, and release from prison on parole. The results will help researchers to better understand Australians’ views on parole and their attitudes towards using parole in different circumstances.

The project is currently in its first stage of research. This involves a national telephone survey of approximately 1,200 Australians aged 18 years and over to gain a better understanding of what Australians know and think about parole.

Download the participant information sheet for stage 1 of this study.

Some participants from the national survey will be invited to participate in more in-depth interviews.  In this second stage of research, we will ask participants to consider hypothetical parole cases and to provide their opinion on whether they feel parole should be granted or denied.

In a third stage of research, interviews will be conducted with parole board members in Australian states and territories.

As they become available, publication details about the research will be provided on this page.

For further information about this project, please contact Dr Robin Fitzgerald on (07) 3365 2287 or by email:  r.fitzgerald1@uq.edu.au.

Publications

Fitzgerald, Robin, Bartels, Lorana, Freiberg, Arie, Cherney, Adrian and Buglar, Shannon (2016) How does the Australian public view parole? Results from a national survey on public attitudes towards parole and re-entry. Criminal Law Journal, 40 6: 307-324.

Project members

Associate Professor Robin Fitzgerald

Associate Professor
School of Social Science